Quote
By Abraham Lincoln
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.
- Source
- Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862 · Vol. 5
- Read at
- Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
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About this quote
Lincoln's reply of August 22, 1862 to Horace Greeley's open letter "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," printed in the New York Tribune. The Collected Works italicizes "any" and "all" here.